The patient, Shane Shafer, was an older man who was suffering from a case of intractable hiccups following a stroke he suffered two years earlier.

The doctors concluded the intractable hiccups were related to the way Mr. Shafer’s brain cells communicated with the vagus nerve describing an “aberrant connection” following his stroke.

Through the use of an implant the doctors were able to stimulate the electrical impulses in the vagus nerve of the patient which caused the hiccups to cease.

I find this to be a very interesting article in the fact that I have stated time and again my feeling that the hiccups have a neurological root. This is apparent in my own life having been diagnosed with tourette’s syndrome as a child. But more recently in my wife’s life when her grandfather suffered a stroke and developed persistent hiccups for several days following the stroke.

This article is more of an informational piece that offers some great insight into possible cause and effect aspects of the hiccups, but by no means a mainstream cure.

Read the article in its entirety on Eurekalert.

Finally Cured After 7 Days of Persistent Hiccups

When I woke up I felt up I felt sleepy and disoriented.

The Chlorpromazine had really zonked me out, in combination with the fact that I had not slept well for the past few nights. I sat up in bed and took a sip of water and the first thing I noticed was… my hiccups were gone.

Now this may seem like I am jumping the gun, but I could tell something was different. You see my hiccups had been so bad that every morning when I woke up I was already hiccupping. In fact sometimes it was the sound of my own hiccups that would wake me up in the morning.

I was so happy, I was actually in disbelief. I just laid there in bed expecting them to come back. I tried not to think about it too much because of how much power the mind seems to have over health related conditions, but it was hard not to think about it.

After 7 days of extreme agony, discomfort, lack or sleep and food, and several trips to the hospital and Urgent Care my hiccups had finally been cured.

Home Remedies to Cure Hiccups Work in Normal Cases

The doctor also recommended a “home remedy” to try in the meantime (while we went to pickup the prescription.). I was a breathing exercise he wanted me to try in an effort to readjust my diaphragm.

He had obviously searched online while I was in Radiology because the method he wanted me to try was one I had come across on another website that had a lot of positive feedback from people who had tried it. This method can be found here.

30 Second Cure to Hiccups

Once we picked up the prescriptions we went home. As soon as I walked in the door I took the Acid Blocker and Thorazine. I had been doing the breathing exercise on the way home to try and help with my hiccups.

I had actually tried it a day or two before with very little luck. I think based on the feedback the method probably works great in “common” cases of hiccups but due to the extent of my hiccups it did very little to help me.

Within about 30 minutes of taking the Chlorpromazine I started feeling a little “sleepy” and before I knew it I was out cold. The thing about Thorazine is when it knocks you out; it knocks you out but good. I feel asleep at about 11:00pm and slept until about 5:00pm the next day.

Treatment and Medication to Cure Persistent Hiccups

I went to Radiology and met with the technician who was going to give me my X-Ray. She asked how long I had been experiencing my Hiccups for. I told her I was almost at day seven and she mentioned that was the longest duration of anyone she had X-Rayed in our city.

Apparently she had worked with several people who had experienced persistent hiccups but none of them had lasted as long as mine. This was somewhat reassuring and nerve racking at the same time.

The X-Ray didn’t show anything out of the norm. The technician and the doctor checked them out but didn’t see anything that had them concerned.

At this point the doctor decided he was going to put me on an Acid Blocker (Pantoprazole) to help with the gagging, and he would prescribe Chlorpromazine (Thorazine) in an attempt to cure my hiccups.

Thorazine is an Anti-Psychotic medication that is also well know for curing hiccups. He prescribed it in a pill form at a low dosage as Chlorpromazine.

Back to Urgent Care for Treatment for my Hiccups

We arrived at Urgent Care once again about 1 hour prior to closing. I was in so much discomfort and pain that I was desperate at this point.

We met with a nurse who took down our information again and went through the normal routine and then met with our doctor. The doctor has an extremely heavy accent and was almost impossible to understand. He obviously hadn’t been in the US long.

The good thing about dealing with a foreign doctor is he was actually concerned about fixing my problem as opposed to how many patients he could push out the door in one day.

He asked me a series of questions about my hiccups and how I was feeling in addition to what I was experiencing and allowed me to go into great detail about what was wrong. He actually listened to me; instead of cutting me off and assuming he had already solved the problem.

After hearing about my previous two visits to the ER and Urgent Care the day before he ruled out many of the common things he was going to try. Instead he said that at this point it would be best if I was given X-Rays to make sure that everything in my chest looked good.

The X-Ray could potentially pick up any problems with a damaged Frenetic Nerve or Diaphragm.